1976-'77 Press Releases
1976
SPECIAL TO: BACK STAGE
In South Bend, Indiana, they're warming up the gala tenth anniversary season of one of the nation's most unusual local shows.
It's a weekly comedy show--an unusual project in itself for a local station to attempt. It has been, at one time or another, variously likened to "Laugh-In" and "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and "NBC Saturday Night." Actually, it predates all of these, and sports its own distinctive style of parody, music and experimental film.
The half-hour show is SRO for commercial advertisers, and in 1973, the National Association of Television Program Executives called it the nation's beat locally- produced variety show in its market class. It has earned the kind of national publicity most local shows only dream of: TV Radio Mirror, Parade, Seventeen and TV Guide, to name a few magazines who have featured the show.
But the most unusual thing about the program is its cast and crew: none of them is over 18 years old!
The program is called "Beyond Our Control" and it is the end product of a broadcast education project sponsored by WNDU-TV, the University of Notre Dame's NBC affiliate in South Bend. Each year, 30 area high school students, ranging in age from 14 through 18, are selected to take part in the organization. Working with 3 adult advisers from WNDU-TV, the students write, film, produce, perform and direct the weekly show.
The fledgling TV stars, handpicked from about 150 applicants each year, begin work in June, shooting on-location 16mm film. Last summer's project, for example, was a five-chapter mythological serial, starring a muscular hero confronted with a Medusa who turned mortals into Jell-0, a torturous Amateur Hour of the Gods, and a quest for the Treasure of the Gods: a Spiegel catalogue and a $50 gift certificate. Needless to add, everything on the show is done with tongue firmly in cheek.
At summer's end, the students, reinforced by new members recruited in September, troop into the campus studios of WNDU-TV for a crash course in audio and video technology. Within weeks, the students are operating cameras, audio consoles, videotape recorders and video switchers like pros, and by November, regular Saturday morning taping sessions are underway.
Meanwhile, the students are knocking on the doors of the area's leading retailers and advertising agencies, peddling the more than 120 advertising availabilities for the show's 13-week season. Unlike many broadcast education projects, "Beyond Our Control" is also a business education. WNDU-TV General Manager Tom Hamilton insists that the students learn about the economics of broadcasting, and has chartered his project under the aegis of Junior Achievement, a nationwide program of economics education.
"Beyond Our Control's" tenth anniversary season will probably continue in the screwball tradition of previous years, which featured such bits as: "The Legend of Bimbo," a Disney-style true adventure about a wild table lamp (yes, table lamp) caught in a poacher's trap; a commercial for "April Euphemism," a feminine product so sensitive in nature that the ad refused to admit the product's purpose; "House, 1999," a futuristic adventure in which an atomic furnace blasts a bungalow and its inhabitants into outer apace; "Theatre of the Dead," featuring a predictably inanimate cast of corpses; and a laxative commercial that graphically compared constipation to a traffic jam in the Holland Tunnel.
As wild as the action usually is, the cast and the staff of the show are dead serious about the project and surpassingly professional for their age. Charged with the formidable responsibility of meeting a weekly program deadline, they deliver the complex half-hour show...edited and ready to roll... on time every week.
All in all, it's a remarkable example of broadcast education..and proof beyond any doubt that an educational project for teen-agers need not be dull for viewers.
July 26, 1976
"BOC" OPENS TENTH ANNIVERSARY SEASON PRODUCTION
Beyond Our Control, the Junior Achievement Television Company, has begun production on its Tenth Anniversary Season with on-location shooting of a new four-chapter serial.
The new project, which will be part of BOC's 1977 season, has been tentatively titled "Tarzan and the Four-Chapter Serial." Dave Simkins is featured as Tarzan, Chris Dudley as a country music singer lost in the jungle, and Kevin Fye as Boy. The plot centers around Tarzan's aid to a tribe of Amazons whose ruby-eyed idol is a prime target for jungle ne'er-do-wells.
The serial is a project of the BOC summer flimmaking company, whose output is part of the student-produced television show. This will be the tenth season in which Michiana area high school students have had the unique opportunity to be part of a complete model television production company. The broadcast education project is sponsored by WNDU-TV.
January 4, 1977
"BOC" TO TELECAST AWARD-WINNING SPECIAL
A one-hour Beyond Our Control special, winner of the 1976 Chicago International Film Festival television award, will be presented Sunday (January 23) at 14:00 PM EST on WNDU-TV, Channel 16.
The program, a compilation of some of Beyond Our Control's "bests" from the past four years, was entered in competition with professionally-produced television programs from throughout the country in the recent Chicago festival, The Junior Achievement program, which is entirely produced by area high school students, captured a Gold "Hugo," the Festival's top prize for television shows.
Some of the highlights of the program--which will be uninterrupted by commercial messages--are:
"The Legend of Bimbo," a Disney-style true-life adventure about a wild table lamp, caught in a poacher's trap, and then raised as a pet;
"Emissary," a science-fiction animation piece, detailing the adventures of a lump-like visitor from another world;
"The Donna Rea Show," situation comedy and laugh-tracks galore, as young Bud starts his own rock band and electrocutes a neighbor boy;
"TV Guiding," an ambitious fantasy in which a young television addict becomes so engrossed in television viewing that he is literally pulled into his set;
"Night of the Poohs," a preview for a made-for-TV movie starring Teddy Bear terrorists; and
"Live from the Newsroom News," featuring stories about UFO sightings and police raids on porno boutiques.
The one-hour special celebrates the opening of Beyond Our Control's Tenth Anniversary Season on WNDU-TV. The program was created in 1967 and has won a number of local and national awards through the years, as well as becoming the nation's most widely-publicized locally-produced television programs The show begins its regular 1977 season on Saturday, January 29 at 6:00 PM EST on Channel 16.
January 8, 1977
"BOC'S" KATE DOHERTY NAMED "SUPERTEEN" BY "SEVENTEEN"
Katherine Doherty, a member of WNDU-TV'S student television project, Beyond Our Control, has been included in a "Super-Teen Album" in the January issue of "Seventeen" magazine.
Kate was one of twelve outstanding young achievers across the country selected for the special feature story by the Editors of the magazine.
A three-year member of the award-winning television production company, Kate is an outstanding salesperson, a Film Production Manager, one of the show's four directors and last year won the program's Best Actress award.
Katy is 16 and a junior at South Bend's LaSalle High School. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Doherty of 1810 Ribourde Drive and, not surprisingly, she hopes for a career in broadcasting.
January 19, 1977
"BEYOND OUR CONTROL" READIES TENTH SEASON PREMIERE
The Junior Achievement Television Company is putting the final touches on the Tenth Anniversary Season premiere of Beyond Our Control. The award-winning "TV Show About TV" will kick-off its 1977 season Saturday (January 29) at 6:00 PM EST on WNDU-TV, Channel 16.
The program will continue its successful "channel switching" format this year; the production technique is designed to simulate an idle-hours session spent before the television set, switching at random from channel to channel. The "programs" on Beyond Our Control are frequently joined in progress, abandoned, and then returned to during the course of the program.
The program's producers have elected to reduce the number of program interruptions for commercials this year; three interruptions were standard last year and this year, only two will be scheduled in each show.
The producers also plan to celebrate their Tenth Anniversary with occasional excursions into the videotape archives. Long-time viewers of the programs may catch brief snatches of material dating back to 1968 during the channel-switching segments. Meanwhile, new production is proceeding at a frantic pace. Summer film projects, including a drive-in theater movie parody and an extensive multi-chapter Tarzan serial, are now in the final editing stages, and studio production has been underway since November.
The company is awaiting a last-minute decision on the contents of the premiere, but already tentatively scheduled are a mouthwash commercial as it might be directed by Ingmar Bergman; a special presentation of "Hamlet" for the hearing impaired; an Arab terrorist take-over of a Public Library; and a commercial for Marshall Brodine's newest magic kit.
Thirty-four Michiana area high school students--comprising the largest company in BOC's history--write, stage, film, produce, perform and direct the program. The JA company was founded in 1960 by Wm. Thomas Hamilton, Executive Vice- President of the WNDU Stations, and turned to the production of Beyond Our Control in 1967. Since that time, it has become the nation's most widely-publicized local television show, and has won a number of national awards, including four Freedoms Foundation Awards for economic education, the National Association of Television Program Executives award for best local variety show, and the Chicago International Film Festival's "Gold Hugo" award for best television program.
Kate Doherty, Phil Frank, Phil Patnaude, Dave Simkins and Marc Wellin are directing the program this year, and Ellen Akins is the show's Production Manager.
January 31, 1977
"BEYOND OUR CONTROL" OPENS 1977 SEASON...AGAIN
An unusually long basketball game scrubbed the 1977 season premiere of Beyond Our Control last Saturday, but undaunted--well, perhaps slightly daunted--producers have announced that they will try again this Saturday, February 5, at 6:00 PM EST.
The award-winning "TV Show About TV" is making a valiant attempt to open its Tenth Anniversary Season on WNDU-TV, Channel 16.
Scheduled for the premiere of the program--whenever it finally occurs-- are a take-off on a mouthwash commercial as it might be directed by Ingmar Bergman, a parody of an educational station's history of stretch underwear, a presentation of "Hamlet" for the hearing impaired, and a commercial for a talking alarm clock.
February 8, 1977
"BEYOND OUR CONTROL" EXAMINES HUMOR CRISIS
Is it possible that in the near future the United States may face a humor shortage--almost as severe as the current energy crisis? Of course not. But that doesn't stop Beyond Our Control from using the premise as a program theme for its show of Saturday, February 26. The third edition of "the TV show about TV" will be telecast at 6:00 PM EST on WNDU-TV, Channel 16.
Noting that an increasing demand for humor in the emerging Third World nations threatens to make our country increasingly dependent upon foreign-produced jokes, BOC urges Americans to cut back and conserve humor...to avoid telling that extra joke at parties, to stop laughing between meals, and to watch only officially-approved shows which do not contain too many laughs.
An excellent example...the third edition of BOC...follows immediately, complete with a humor newscast, a game show which solicits new ideas on humor from viewers, and more.
The Junior Achievement Television Company produces this award-winning series, now in its Tenth Anniversary Season on Channel 16.
March 14, 1977
"BEYOND OUR CONTROL" LOOKS AT PSYCHICS
The sixth edition of the Tenth Anniversary Season of Beyond Our Control will take a look at mentalists, psychics, and frauds in a parody of "The David Susskind Show," Saturday, March 19, at 6 PM on Channel 16.
Randy Hassan stars as "David," whose guests include URI Spoonbender (Chris Webb) who fries eggs in his hands; Amazing Porkskin (Kerry Johnson) who can see geometric figures through almost totally opaque envelopes; Dr. Sigmund Frog (Dave Simkins) who almost gets an opportunity to analyze a dream; and Mr. Harry Chews (Kevin Fye), a telekinetic who claims his legs are in Toledo.
In another section of the show, the network attempts not one but four versions of a new situation comedy, "Those Seven Sullivans," and Investigative Detective Nick Curmudgeon (Dave Simkins) and his faithful Molly (Laura Lea Keays) look into the famous Singapore Snowstorm Caper.
Raiding the archives again, BOC dredges up a commercial for Christmas fruits and a look at a famous movie set where a guided tour becomes involved in the shooting of a rather rough scene.
The Junior Achievement Television Company is comprised of thirty-one Michiana area high school students, totally responsible for the creation of the show.
May 2, 1977
"BEYOND OUR CONTROL" CONTINUES "TARZAN" SERIAL
Tarzan (Dave Simkins), abandoned two weeks ago in a quicksand pit in the first chapter of "Tarzan and the Four-Part Serial," will be miraculously rescued (we may assume) this week on Beyond Our Control, Saturday (May `7) at 5:00 PM EST on Channel 16.
In the second chapter, the villains (Randy Hassan and Scott Wayne) make their appearance and set off in search of a diamond-eyed idol, worshipped by a devout group of Amazons. Catastrophe results when the villains, their porters, and Boy (Kevin Fye) are caught on a collapsing rope bridge.
On other "channels," BOC will catch fragments of a new "Action News!" show, filled with sound and fury and Leigh Taylor, Ed Luebben, Kevin Fye and Larry Karaszewski; a series of network late-show previews; an executive board meeting that goes astray when food appears; and a poignant (but rather amusing) look at a lonely individual (Kerry Johnson) forced to depend on a tape cassette club for "conversation,"
This is the ninth edition of the Junior Achievement Television Company's "tv show about TV," which just won the 1977 Broadcast Media Award from San Francisco State University.
May 10, 1977
"BOC" CONTEST WINNER TO APPEAR
The winner of the recent Beyond Our Control talent search will appear on the program of Saturday, May 14, according to the producers of the Junior Achievement Television Company's show. The show is at 5:00 PM on WNDU-TV.
The winner is 20-year-old Rex Bontrager of Elkhart, an employee of the St. Joseph Valley Bank in Elkhart. Bontrager, who is also attending Purdue University studying to be an electrical engineer, wrote the winning letter in the recent contest. He will appear--rather briefly--in a shoe store skit.
In other matters, "Tarzan and the Four-Chapter Serial" will continue, with an amazing rescue from the collapsed rope bridge, another encounter with the Amazons, and a climax that leaves Dolly bound and gagged in a very precarious position--not to mention covered with honey. Chris Dudley will be hosting a psychotic game show, "The Family Freud," and (postponed from last week) Kerry Johnson will appear as a lonely young man who talks to tape cassettes of gorgeous women.
This is the tenth edition of the program, which is sponsored by WNDU-TV, Channel 16.
